Sushant Singh ready to direct film next year

NEW DELHI - National Award winning actor Sushant Singh, who is still remembered for playing a dacoit in Ram Gopal Varma’s “Jungle”, is planning to wield the megaphone soon.

“I am planning to direct a film and hopefully by next year I will be able to fulfil my dream. I am working on the script at the moment… all the other details are yet to finalised,” Sushant told IANS over the phone from Mumbai.

It was Varma who had introduced Sushant in Hindi films with his critically acclaimed underworld drama “Satya” and later repeated him in “Kaun” and “Jungle”. Apart from that, the actor has been seen in “The Legend Of Bhagat Singh” and “Lakshya”.

In his initial days, most of his roles were negative in nature and Sushant soon got bored. Then came films like “Mathrubhoomi” and “Paisa Vasool” as well as the TV serial “Viraasat” and Sushant managed to break out of the typecast image.

And now he’s willing to go back to villainous roles.

“It’s true that I was doing mainly villainous roles at a particular time, but then I stopped doing them and started dabbling in other genres because I got bored of doing the same thing. Now that I have broken that image, I will be back with a negative character in ‘Mohandas’,” said the actor.

Directed by Mazhar Kamran, “Mohandas” is about a man who steals someone’s identity to get a job. The film is said to be based on a real life incident.

“I play the role of a man who steals someone’s identity and starts working at his place using his name. I accepted this film because of the director who was a cinematographer for my film ‘Kaun’. When he approached me for this role, I couldn’t say no,” said the actor who has not charged any money for his role in the film.

“Mohandas” also stars Sonali Kulkarni, Nakul Vaid and Govind Namdeo. It’s due to release July 10.

His other projects are director Vinay Shukla’s “Mirch”, a supernatural thriller “Shout” by Wilson Lewis and a film on kick boxing “Lahore” by Sanjay Chauhan.

After working with acclaimed directors, Sushant now wants to work with Vishal Bharadwaj who has made award-winning films like “Maqbool” and “Omkara” among others.

“I really want to work with Vishal Bharadwaj. He has a very refreshing approach to cinema. His films always delve into a new area and all his films appeal to me. I think he will be able to extract the best in me as an actor,” he said.

Did he get his due in Bollywood?

“I think it’s too early for me to say or even try to analyse whether I have got my due or not. Maybe when I complete 50 years in the industry, I might sit back and think what I have done and what I have got,” said the actor, who is originally from Bijnor district in Uttar Pradesh.